Voltaire et al

I keep learning things from The Economist (even though I have now paused the subscription, so I'm just catching up on old issues...): In a recent Letters column, a reader (Alan Kennis, New York) points out that it was NOT Voltaire who said that "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it". Apparently, it was his biographer S. G. Tallentyre (pen name of Miss Evelyn Beatrice Hall) who had that honour. (He even gives a source: "Modern Language Notes" November 1943...)

Another quote of the same page of The Economist is also worth remembering: "It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it." (Attributed to American humourist Sam Levenson.)